guidelines for assessing literacy and numeracy unit ... · literacy includes reading, writing,...

© NZQA 2011 Updated January 2013 1

Guidelines for assessing Level 1 Literacy and Numeracy unit standards

1. Introduction This document is intended to provide guidance for the planning for, and assessment against, Level 1 Literacy and Numeracy unit standards. It includes suggestions of approaches and examples of planning tools that may be adapted for use depending on the context the standards are being assessed in. Using these standards in a teaching and learning programme, or within a workplace context, should not require the development of new assessments specific to these standards. Providers and assessors should focus on identifying assessment opportunities within existing programmes and develop methods of recognising, collecting and verifying evidence against the standard when that evidence is identified. This approach supports good teaching and learning principles and reinforces the strategy of embedding Literacy and Numeracy within teaching and learning programmes. The standards are intended to credential knowledge and skills related to the literacy and numeracy demands of everyday life, learning, and work. Literacy includes reading, writing, speaking, and listening. Skills in this area are essential for good communication, active participation, critical thinking, and problem solving. Numeracy includes knowledge and skills needed to apply mathematics to everyday family and financial matters, learning, work and community tasks, social and leisure activities. The development of the standards was informed by a number of key documents, including the: National Qualifications Framework Level Descriptors New Zealand Curriculum (Ministry of Education (MoE) 2007) Learning Progressions for Adult Literacy (Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) 2008) Learning Progressions for Adult Numeracy (TEC 2008) Adult Literacy Life-skills Survey National Standards for Literacy and Numeracy (MoE 2007) The standards are registered at Level 1 of the National Qualifications Framework. The relevant level descriptors are attached as Appendix 1.


Literacy unit standards 26622, 26624 and 26625 are generally aligned to Koru 4 of the Learning Progressions for Adult Literacy. Numeracy unit standards 26623, 26626 and 26627 are generally aligned to Koru 5 of the Learning Progressions for Adult Numeracy. More information on the Learning Progressions can be accessed at http://www.literacyandnumeracyforadults.org.nz/Learning-progressions As this document applies to a number of different education sectors we have used generic terms in a number of places. The following provides definitions of terms: Artefacts is a single term for pieces of work presented as assessment evidence within a portfolio. Examples are provided within the following section. Assessor means the person conducting the summative assessment. This could be a teacher, tutor, or registered workplace assessor. Learner(s) means the person undertaking assessment. It is interchangeable with the term student or candidate.

2. Naturally Occurring Evidence Naturally occurring evidence is evidence derived from activities within a learning programme and/or from a learner’s actual work performance and/or everyday life. Naturally occurring evidence is collected from a range of real contexts and obtained over a period of time. Real contexts are part of the learner’s everyday life and may include their classroom, their workplace, and other contexts. Evidence gathered from:

• a candidate’s classroom may be sourced from different subjects or courses, or from different topics or aspects of the same course,

• a candidate’s workplace may be sourced from an employment focus (ie relating to employment documentation and conditions) or from a job-performance focus (ie regular work tasks),

• other contexts may be sourced from a candidate’s involvement with family, sport, leisure, or community.

Some Examples of Naturally Occurring Evidence In the classroom/training room:

• learning activities that occur within a course of work e.g. – workbook activities, course readings, small group discussions, conferencing, project work, practical work,

• formative assessment activities within a broader scheme of work e.g. –reading and short answer test on an aspect of a course of work,

• evidence drawn from assessment activities for other standards.


In the workplace: • completing workplace documentation e.g. – timesheets, work logs or

job sheets, incident reports, or other basic reports, • reading instructions, health and safety information, employment

contracts, maps, summarised information such as KiwiSaver main points, notices memos,

• contributing to team meetings/toolbox meetings, debriefings, verbal reports,

• performing calculations e.g. – materials costs, GST, wages, and deductions.

In everyday life:

• comparing information in relation to a significant purchase, • creating and maintaining a basic budget.

3. Collection of evidence1 General information about gathering evidence of achievement is available on the NZQA website at http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/qualifications-standards/qualifications/ncea/ncea-subject-resources/literacy-and-numeracy-level-1/ As the Level 1 Literacy and Numeracy standards are based on the collection of evidence over time, they lend themselves to assessment via portfolio. Portfolios can be used for a range of purposes including supporting learning and teaching through formative assessment or providing a collection of evidence for summative assessment. For assessment against the Literacy and Numeracy standards the purpose of the portfolio is the collection of evidence for summative assessment. A portfolio of this nature would typically include: a contents page outlining what the portfolio should contain; a list of the criteria required to meet the standard; verified examples of the learners work and/or attestations of observed performance. The contents page can also be used to ensure that the completed portfolio contains all of the evidence required. An Assessed Work cover sheet for that standard will also fulfil this function, and must be included in any submission for national external moderation. Selected examples of the learners work should be organised within the portfolio in such a way that it allows the assessor to easily identify that the portfolio is complete.

1 Guidance included in section 3 has been adapted from Klenowski. V (2002), Developing Portfolios for Learning and Assessment: Processes and Principles, New York, Routledge and Falmer.


Attestations of observed performance are suitable for evidence of practical activities and observed behaviours. Attestations will be particularly applicable for the standard, Actively participate in spoken interactions where the spoken interactions are observed and noted. Learners should be encouraged to take responsibility for the selection of evidence for their portfolio. Initially, this could be completed as a collaborative process between the learner and the assessor, but should lead towards the learner taking full responsibility for the selection of evidence as they gain confidence. This approach supports the key competency of managing self. Summative assessment of the portfolio can be performed using a holistic approach to assessment. The holistic approach views the portfolio as a whole and considers how the individual pieces contribute to the overall outcome.

4. Verification Verification has two aspects. The first aspect is verification that the assessment evidence is authentic. The assessor must be satisfied that the naturally occurring evidence can be attributed to the learner. The second aspect is verification that the assessment evidence meets the requirements of the standard (summative assessment). Where assessment evidence is being gathered over time and from a range of activities, providers and/or assessors will need systems in place for both forms of verification. Verification of the authenticity of assessment evidence may occur separately from summative assessment against the standard and may be completed by someone who is not completing the summative assessment. For example, a teacher or tutor from another subject area or course, or a supervisor or line manager in a workplace may verify the authenticity of a learner’s assessment evidence. In these cases a signed and dated verifier’s checklist that includes the position of the verifier is acceptable. Assessment evidence that occurs in everyday life must also be verified as authentic. In this case professional judgement must be used when considering the source of the verification and the confidence that can be placed in that source. For example, it would generally not be acceptable to use a family member as a source of verification of authenticity. However, in secondary schools distance learning programmes using parents to verify authenticity is an accepted practice, but only when used in combination with a statutory declaration.


Additional general information about authenticity of assessment evidence is available at http://www.nzqa.govt.nz/providers-partners/assessment-and-moderation/assessment-of-standards/authenticity/ Verification that the assessment evidence meets the requirements for the standard (summative assessment) must be carried out by someone qualified or authorised to do so, and must follow the policies and procedures of the organisation undertaking and reporting the assessment. For example, workplace assessors would need to meet the policies of the Industry Training Organisation they are assessing for. This may mean they have to have competency against unit standard 4098 Use standards to assess learner performance, and be registered as an assessor. The following table outlines some possible methods of verification.

Assessment opportunity Possible method for verifying Artefact produced by learner in a classroom learning activity

Signed verification checklist accompanied by example(s) of evidence.

Small group discussion Workplace meeting

Signed attestation accompanied by annotated observations of the learner’s performance.

Formative assessment activity (e.g. reading and short answers)

Activity signed as authentic by verifier.

Artefact produced by student outside of classroom (e.g. on work placement, within Gateway or STAR programme)

Artefact verified as authentic by supervisor or another organisations tutor. Verified by teacher responsible for summative assessment as meeting standard.

5. National External Moderation Moderation submission requirements Schools

• Submit four randomly-selected learner samples. • Optional in 2011 – include a further two teacher-selected learner

samples with your submission for feedback. Include one just above and one just below the achieved/not achieved boundary.

Tertiary Education Organisations (TEOs)

• Submit three learner samples, selected according to your organisation’s policy and procedures.

For each learner sample, schools and TEOs submit:

• learner evidence • Assessed Work cover sheet for each set of learner evidence


• information that supports the learner evidence against the standard’s requirements (documented on the Assessed Work cover sheet). Include information about:

o the naturally occurring context o the activity

• if relevant, the Moderation Visual/Digital Evidence cover sheet. This can be found using the search function on the NZQA website (www.nzqa.govt.nz).

Submit materials for each standard under the: Schools

• Secondary Moderation Cover Sheet Random Selection form • Secondary Moderation Cover Sheet Teacher Selected Assessed Work

Only form (for teacher-selected samples). TEOs

• Tertiary Moderation Cover Sheet. These forms can be found using the search function on the NZQA website (www.nzqa.govt.nz). Assessed Work cover sheets The Assessed Work cover sheet specific to each Literacy and Numeracy unit standard must be used with submissions for national external moderation. This ensures necessary information about the activity and context is provided with the evidence for each learner. The Assessed Work cover sheet also specifies standard requirements and provides a space for assessor verification. The assessed work cover sheets can be found under the Information and resources tabs at www.nzqa.govt.nz/literacy-numeracy. Moderation submission guidelines The learner evidence and documentation that is required for national external moderation is the same as that required for assessment (when the assessor is not also the evidence gatherer) and internal moderation. Information about the naturally occurring context The documentation submitted to national external moderation must reflect that learner evidence has occurred naturally, and has been generated over time. Information about the naturally occurring context may consist of a brief description for each activity of the situation or context in which the evidence was gathered or the activity occurred. For example, the evidence may have come from mathematics class work, or a social study project, science exam or workplace activity. This information should be captured on the specific Assessed Work cover sheet. However, if this information is already recorded in detail on the activity, please cross-reference it on the cover sheet.


Information about the activity This may consist of a brief description of the activity and other key information. For example:

• what the problems were (26623 Use number to solve problems, and 26627 Use measurement to solve problems)

• the data set used (26626 Interpret statistical information for a purpose) • a brief description of the purpose and audience ( 26622 Write to

communicate ideas for a purpose and audience) • copies of actual texts read (or a representative sample) and their

context/source (26624 Read texts with understanding). This activity information should also be captured on the specific Assessed Work cover sheet. Learner evidence The learner evidence will depend on the nature and requirements of the standard. It could consist of any one or combination of the following:

• learner responses • samples of writing • samples of workings to solve problems • signed and dated verifications of authenticity • signed and dated verifications of observed performance (e.g. by a

sports coach or workplace supervisor) • signed and dated detailed observation checklists • digital recordings.

All evidence submitted must be dated so it is clear that it has occurred “over time”. The date/s should reflect when the activity occurred, not when the assessor collected the evidence. Oral or practical demonstration evidence Where evidence is oral or a practical demonstration, suitable learner evidence might consist of one or more of:

• a detailed observation checklist, signed and dated, that contains all the standard’s requirements

• observer comments regarding what the learner said and did • actual visual evidence (naturally occurring evidence might already be

recorded digitally for other purposes). • actual words spoken by the learner, signed and dated by the listener.

For an example of a detailed observation sheet, see the 26625 Observation sheet for unit 26625 Actively participate in spoken interactions, which can be found under Literacy: Information and resources, at www.nzqa.govt.nz/literacy.


Audio/Visual digital evidence If digital evidence is submitted for national external moderation and the recording is of a group, the learner whose performance is being assessed must be clearly identified (using the Moderation Visual/Digital evidence cover sheet). If only part of a learner’s submitted evidence is relevant to the standard being assessed, then the relevant evidence should be clearly flagged for ease of identification. The moderation visual/digital evidence cover sheets can be found on the NZQA website (www.nzqa.govt.nz), using the search function.

6. Planning As outlined in the introduction section, assessment of the Literacy and Numeracy standards should not require the development of new assessments specific to these standards. Providers and assessors should focus on identifying assessment opportunities within existing programmes. This requires some degree of planning in order to identify in advance where the assessment opportunities may exist within a programme and what sort of evidence may be present within the programme. For example:

• in the secondary sector, teachers may identify opportunities within a course plan,

• in the tertiary sector tutors may identify opportunities within a course plan and/or assessments,

• in the workplace, registered assessors may identify opportunities from the assessment materials and assessment schedules.

There are a number of different approaches to planning assessment against the Literacy and Numeracy unit standards. The following are a sample of approaches that were developed by practitioners from the secondary, tertiary and industry sectors. Diagram 5.1 (page 9) identifies approaches that would commonly occur within a classroom context and links it to scenarios and examples of assessment evidence that may occur using the approach. It should be used as a prompt and adapted to include a much wider range of possible approaches. This includes approaches that may provide evidence for the Numeracy standards. Diagram 5.2 (page 10) refines the planning tool shown in Diagram 5.1 to use a single approach (explore) in the context of Tipuna or Old People. It also shows how assessment evidence could be gathered from a field trip activity and what that evidence may be. This planning tool could be adapted for use across a range of subject through: identifying the approach used within a lesson; noting the context(s); linking assessment opportunities to the criteria in the standards; identifying resources; identifying possible opportunities for gathering naturally occurring evidence.


Diagram 5.3 (page 11) could be used within the tertiary sector to document possible assessment opportunities within a unit standards based programme or course where assessment of outcomes and evidence requirements could also provide evidence against the Literacy and Numeracy unit standards. (Please note the examples given are indicative only, and whether or not valid evidence towards the Literacy or Numeracy unit standards was generated would depend on the assessment task set).


Diagram 5.1 Example of approaches that could occur across subjects Approaches Possible Scenarios Assessment opportunities Literacy unit

standards Evidence gathering

Explore • A movie/actor • A scientific concept • A local issue • Health choices • A personal interest • An historical event • A book/author • Car • Place • Artist (Visual or

performance) • Computer game • Sport • Animal • Career • Workplace

Locate and process information from text e.g. website, textbook, blog, novel, instruction manual. Locate and process information from a person or expert. Evaluate information and/or source.

R, W, S and L Summary paragraph Set of notes or mind maps Annotated texts Presentation of findings Formative assessment activities Formal letter or email Interview transcript or notes

Select • The best cellphone plan • The best TradeMe deal • Career options

Locate and process information from text – e.g. website, pamphlet. Lists of pros and cons Evaluation of the information

R, W A completed graphic organiser/grid Answers to set questions A list of pros and cons An explanation of a choice made

Plan

• A trip/fieldtrip or camping activity

• A meal • A product • A simple budget • A risk management plan • A vegetable plot

Read, extract and evaluate information, e.g. MoH health guidelines for meal planning. Students read and annotate recipes for nutrition value. Read and evaluate menus. Write menus.

R, W, L & S

Annotated guidelines, including evaluation of available information.

Identify • Home or workplace hazards

Read MoH Poisons guidelines and investigate hazards in home, workplace or in class (lab)

R, W Visual diary


Diagram 5.2 Planning template for level 1 Literacy assessment opportunities

Approaches Possible sources/authentic contexts

Assessment opportunities (Linked to the criteria for the standards)

Possible activities and texts For one example

Naturally occurring evidence

Explore R = Reading W = Writing L&S = Listening and Speaking

Local Area: Tipuna/Old People Issues e.g. family violence, sustainability, housing Successful people Writer Artist Athlete Entrepreneur Job market e.g shearing horticulture, leisure and tourism, hospitality, army environment e.g. landforms, soils, vegetation, water population e.g. marae, census, settlements,

LITERACY R Locate ideas R Describe ideas R Evaluate ideas W Express appropriate ideas W Organise ideas W Use appropriate language W Remove technical errors L&S Participate verbally and non-verbally in a pair or group L&S Participate appropriately

Example: History Tipuna/Old People/Ancestors Field Trip cemetery/museum/site R Locate information on a field trip, e.g. on headstones, museum captions, information boards. Followed up with inquiry learning about early achievements of these people, e.g. milling (timber, flax), horse shoeing, transport, military… R Describe ideas from a historical letter, engineer’s diary, recipe, textbook, novel, letter, magazine and local newspaper articles, mission statements … R Evaluate ideas from a feature article/history text. W Express ideas from a field trip W Organise ideas W Use appropriate language W Remove technical errors L&S Role play a historical person functioning today(“ Our World”)

Possible kinds of evidence: R (Locate) work sheet of questions/cloze passage R (Describe) Word-to-sentence writing (after offering and discussing some key words). R (Evaluate) Recreate a historical experience in a written story e.g. Cook a recipe and evaluate the process/product. W (Produce) one of a range of note makers. W (Write) a blog. W (Word process) a series of revised drafts L&S radio interview (Note: Conferencing above would satisfy L&S requirements).


Diagram 5.3 Planning template for identifying possible assessment opportunities within existing tertiary unit standards based programme

or course.

Naturally Occurring Evidence Within a Programme leading to the National Certificate in Employment Skills

Formative and Summative Assessment Opportunities

Numeracy Unit Standards Literacy Unit Standards Unit Standards contained in course or programme

Number

26623

4 credits

Measure

26627

3 credits

Statistics

26626

3 credits

Reading

26624

3 credits

Writing

26622

4 credits

Speaking

26625

3 credits

1978 �

4248 � �

4249 � (Outcome 1)

� (Outcome 2 - ER 2.3)

10781 � (Outcome 1 and 2)

4252 � Outcome 1)


7123

24699 � (Outcome 1)

24709 � (Outcome 2)

� (Outcome 1)

25662

22144 � (Outcome 2)



1294 Possible additions to draft certificate 64

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� = Evidence that could contribute towards the Literacy or Numeracy unit standard may be generated through the assessment of this standard (depending on the assessment task set – for example, any piece of writing contributing evidence for Literacy standard 26622 must have a clear purpose and audience).

Read texts with understanding Portfolio contents page


Appendix 1 The following table shows the knowledge, skills and application dimension for standards at level 1 of the New Zealand Qualifications Framework. Level Knowledge Learning Demand Responsibility

1 Basic general and/or foundation knowledge

Apply basic solutions to simple problems Apply basic skills required to carry out simple tasks

Highly structured contexts Requiring some responsibility for own learning Interacting with others

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